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Dragon's Prophet EU prepares to unleash its first raid
If you think fighting alongside one dragon is pretty great, then you should love fighting alongside 10! Dragon's Prophet EU is introducing the first raid experience, a 10-man (and 10-dragon) affair, in the next update scheduled to hit in just a few days along with a level cap raise to 90. Four legendary dragons await adventurers in the new Dragonheart Temple dungeon: Sammos the Resplendent, Vita the Stalwart Shield, Izamu the Relentless Tide, and Fadero the Heavenly Storm. And if adventurers vanquish all four, there is an even more powerful fifth raid boss to face, whose identity will remain secret until the day of the patch. Take a look at the vicious behemoths you'll be facing in the five new images below. [Source: Infernum Productions press release]
Drobo 5D: Speedy, expandable Thunderbolt storage for professionals
Data Robotics (now Drobo) was the first company to make expandable RAID storage easy, and with the current Drobo line of BeyondRAID devices they've now made the devices faster through the use of Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 connectivity, as well as the Drobo Accelerator Bay's ability to use an mSATA SSD for fast caching. In this TUAW review, I'll take a look at the Drobo 5D (US$664 on Amazon), a five-bay device designed to give creative professionals fast and inexpensive RAID storage. Setup Setup of the device is simple -- I didn't even use the instructions, since from past experience I know that you basically just hook up power, install drives, and connect the device to your Mac. Well, that was fine, but my OS X Mavericks-equipped MacBook Pro did't want to see the Drobo until I re-installed the Drobo Dashboard software a second time. After that minor annoyance, it was time to use the Drobo Dashboard app to format the drive. Drobo provided three 1 TB drives, a 2 TB unit, and a 3 TB drive to fill the bays in the device. The device also contained an mSATA SSD in the Drobo Accelerator Bay (below). Once formatted, the device had 7.27 TB of storage capacity, of which 4.47 TB was available for data. 931.50 GB was set aside for expansion (if I decided to put, for example, three more 3 TB drives in place of the existing 1 TB drives), and 1.88 TB was used for protection. What's great about Drobo's BeyondRAID technology is that it's possible to replace failed drives or hot-swap different drives without fear of data loss. I used to own a Drobo Pro, and found it simple to add drives and replace small capacity drives with larger ones at will. The device not only has Thunderbolt connectors (two), but can also be used with USB 3.0. Cables are included in the box, so it's literally a plug-and-play storage solution. The two Thunderbolt ports are perfect if you wish to daisy-chain Drobo 5Ds and add in a monitor or two... One last comment, although it really doesn't have anything to do with setup -- the new pricing on the Drobo products is a refreshing sign. It will put the expandability and safety of RAID storage into the hands of many more professionals. Benchmarks Benchmarking the Drobo 5D was done with Intech Software's SpeedTools QuickBench 4.0 software. To ensure accuracy in testing, I performed a 100-cycle complete test. This subjects the drive to sequential and random read and write tests with file sizes from 4K to 100 MB, then graphically or textually displays that information to show the "sweet spots" for a specific drive or array. For example, if your work involves shuffling around a lot of very large files, you'll probably want a drive that has peak read/write speeds for files around your average file size. The tests were performed both with Thunderbolt and USB 3.0. Using Thunderbolt, the standard test results (nine different file sizes between 4 KB and 1024 KB) showed average speeds as follows: Sequential Read: 140.504 MB/Sec Sequential Write: 93.245 MB/Sec Random Read: 116.435 MB/Sec Random Write: 70.410 MB/Sec For the large test -- transfer sizes between 2 and 10 MB -- the average results were: Large Read: 341.327 MB/Sec Large Write: 282.060 MB/Sec And for the extended test -- transfer sizes between 20 and 100 MB -- the average results were: Extended Read: 255.953 MB/Sec Extended Write 262.864 MB/Sec For USB 3.0, the results were Sequential Read: 99.533 MB/Sec Sequential Write: 111.509 MB/Sec Random Read: 94.895 MB/Sec Random Write: 80.605 MB/Sec Large Read: 217.975 MB/Sec Large Write: 219.885 MB/Sec Extended Read: 198.243 MB/Sec Extended Write: 228.985 MB/Sec These results are all much, much better than what we saw for the first-generation Drobo Pro under FireWire 800. For those tests, there were only two results -- write and read speeds -- and they weren't that good. Write speed was 29.3 MB/Sec, while read speed was 46.0 MB/Sec. The Drobo 5D is much faster than the old Drobo Pro, especially when using a Thunderbolt connection. It might just be the fast connection, but I'm willing to bet that the addition of the SSD accelerator bay has also provided a boost to performance. Physical Attributes In terms of the physical size and weight of the Drobo 5D, it's barely larger than the original Drobo with four bays. The 5D measures in at 10.3 long x 7.3 high x 5.9 wide, and weighs just 8.5 lbs without drives and power supply. I have to admit that one thing that used to drive me nuts about my original DroboPro was the sound of the device. I could constantly hear the hard drives chattering away. The Drobo 5D appears to be much quieter, as I could barely hear the device even when it was in the middle of read/write testing. Since each bay can be filled with an SSD if you have the money and the inclination, you could really have a silent and fast BeyondRAID array working for you. Conclusion Having used a DroboPro for several years, the new Drobo 5D is a refreshing update to the creative professional storage solution. It retains the ease of use and setup of the original Drobo products, but brings an amazing amount of speed to the game. TUAW will be reviewing some other Drobo products in the near future, including the Drobo 5N NAS network-attached storage product and the Drobo Mini. Pros Easy setup and configuration Easily expandable storage; as drive capacities increase, drives can be replaced with higher capacity gear Can be set up for single or double-disk redundancy Drives are hot-swappable SSD caching provides amazing speeds Dual Thunderbolt ports for daisy-chaining Quiet operation New, lower pricing Cons May not be fast enough for video professionals Who is it for? Anyone with a need for relatively fast, expandable, and reliable storage in vast quantities
Promise Technology intros first Thunderbolt 2 storage solutions
Whether you just picked up one of the new MacBook Pros with Retina display or you're waiting for the debut of the Mac Pro later this year, there's good news for those who want to take advantage of the ultra-fast Thunderbolt 2 ports built into the new hardware. Promise Technology has introduced two Thunderbolt 2 storage solutions that boast input/output speeds of up to 20 Gbps. The Pegasus2 Series comes in four-, six- and eight-bay versions housing up to 32 TB of raw capacity. The RAID enclosure supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and 60. Promise also introduced the SANLink2 Thunderbolt Fibre Channel bridge, perfect for connecting portable and desktop systems up to high-speed Fibre Channel SAN. The SANLink2 box delivers dual 8 Gbps fibre channel ports, and the two 20 Gbps Thunderbolt 2 ports support DisplayPort and Device Daisy-Chaining. Both products will be available through the online Apple Store and Promise VARs and distributors. The Pegasus2 devices should be available next month, while the SANLink2 bridge will be arriving in December.
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR's Dread War, part 2
This past week, I finished up exploring all aspects of the new Star Wars: The Old Republic patch save for the final showdown between my guild and the Dread Council. If you have been following my livestreams, then you'll know that we should finish that up on Wednesday. In this column, I've covered everything from the history of how the Dread Masters arrived at this point to the first offensive on the moon of Oricon to the first phase of the attack on the Dread Masters' fortress. Overall, it's been exciting. BioWare concluded this chapter in SWTOR history with as much flare as it started it two years ago. In the final confrontation between the player and the Dread Masters, we understand more about the characters of the Dread Masters and their motivation to conquer the known galaxy. We've already confronted Dread Master Styrak in the Scum and Villainy operation and Dread Master Brontes in the Dread Fortress operation from last week. Dread Masters Bestia, Tyrans, Calphayus, and Raptus remain. And that's who we will study this week.
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR's Dread War, part 1
When I freed the Dread Masters on the prison world of Belsavis, little did I know that a year and a half after the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, I would not only be fighting against these amazing foes but trying to destroy them. As I mentioned the last couple of weeks, the Empire and the Republic found the secret base of the Dread Masters on the planet Oricon, where they have been hiding and experimenting on the local fauna while amassing their subjugated army. Eventually, a strike team will have to invade the Dread Master's fortress, and in the two new operations of Update 2.4: The Dread War, you will get to do just that. Although I'm still not sure where this falls on the fun scale when compared to other SWTOR operations, I can tell you that it is challenging and exciting. I'll break it down for you, and if you hadn't guessed already, there will be spoilers. That said, I will limit the story-related ones.
Watcher explains Heroic Norushen changes
This week, we saw a bit of discussion on Heroic Norushen, and the means by which guilds were defeating him. This led to the decision to make some adjustments to the fight this week. As you might expect, those guilds that had already defeated the boss using the 'brute force' strategy (basically, paring down the healers brought to the fight to a bare minimum and overwhelming the boss with DPS) weren't happy at the prospect of having to go back in next week and relearn the fight, since their approach was made vastly more difficult by the changes. Now we have Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas' explanation of the changes and why they were made, and it's a pretty interesting read if you're into encounter design and its implementation. Just some selected bits of information from the post: Originally on the PTR Heroic Norushen had a 'draw' mechanic that would have prevented the brute-force method, but it was removed because it had bad effects once gear improved, forcing groups to throttle their DPS. The intent isn't to increase encounter difficulty - the problem isn't that the fight is too easy, it's that people are just skipping the mechanics entirely. Going back to reference the Encounter Design Dev Watercooler, Watcher mentions that "a major factor when it comes to deciding whether to make changes to address an unintended strategy is whether the approach actually involves interesting gameplay." - I think it's fair to say that just throwing DPS at it so you can avoid the mechanics isn't all that interesting. The difference between the changes to Thok this week and Norushen in the upcoming reset are profoundly the difference between a bugfix (Thok was always intended to have Acceleration on all difficulties save Raid Finder, it was simply accidentally turned off on all other difficulties as well as Raid Finder) and a decision to change an encounter to close off an approach that was never intended. That's why Thok was hotfixed immediately, but Norushen is being changed with the server reset so it affects all guilds equally. For more, you can read Watcher's post here on the forums, and we'll reproduce it in full behind the cut as well.
RIFT 2.4 brings challenging instances to bear
Ah, smell that? That's the smell of a big new content update in the air. And also many bugs that have been fried on the metaphorical bug zapper. But mostly an update. RIFT has upgraded to 2.4: Beyond Infinity, and that means a ton of additional content to be conquered and plundered. At the core of Update 2.4 are three new instances: the Infinity Gate raid, the Realm of Twisted Dreams dungeon, and the Infernal Dawn chronicle. An additional raid, Planebreaker Bastion, will be coming in weeks ahead. Update 2.4 also raises the PvP prestige cap to 90 with new gear and weapons, adds more hairstyle options, plugs in cross-shard instant adventures, and improves the new user experience. As you patch up, you can read the official notes and our preview of the update.
To Infinity Gate and beyond: Previewing RIFT 2.4's instances
RIFT's 2.4 update is expected to land next week with a big, meaty thud that tells you it's packing some serious content. While 2.4 is peppered with many nice bullet points, including cross-shard instant adventuring and new PvP ranks, the bulk of it is devoted to instances, more instances, and even more instances. Namely, a 20-person raid (with a second one to follow), a new five-person expert dungeon, and a two-person chronicle. Trion Worlds took us on a whirlwind tour of RIFT's four new instances, giving us an oh-so-brief taste of the terror and exhilaration that is to come. Care to join our raid group to see?
RIFT gives Beyond Infinity update overview
Get ready to blast off beyond infinity and just you shush if you're already starting to argue with that logical fallacy. Trion Worlds has put up an overview page for RIFT's Update 2.4: Beyond Infinity, and the list is pretty impressive for this upcoming content patch. Beyond Infinity includes two 20-person raids, a new five-person expert dungeon, the Infernal Dawn: Laethys chronicle, additional barbershop options, cross-shard instant adventures, and PvP prestige rank 90. Massively has a preview of Update 2.4 coming tomorrow, so stay tuned! [Update: Reader Chris tipped us off to a post on RiftScene, which quotes a German community manager claiming the release date will be September 18th.]
Blizzard reveals Siege of Orgrimmar raid schedule
Next week, we hit Orgrimmar as the Siege begins. And Blizzard has just revealed the release schedule for the raid as a whole. Next week, on September 10th, we get normal mode opening and Flex Raiding opens wing 1, the Vale of Eternal Sorrows. Heroic opens on the 17th (requiring a Garrosh kill on normal to unlock it), along with Flex wing 2, the Gates of Retribution, and LFR opening wing 1. This keeps the previous intention of unlocking Flex faster than LFR and staggers the normal and heroic releases as we saw in previous raids this expansion. For the complete release schedule, we've reproduced the Blizzard post behind the jump. I for one am very much looking forward to the Siege.
PAX Prime 2013: WildStar dungeon preview
WildStar's dungeons won't be for everyone. They're a bit tougher, a bit wilder, and a bit longer than the standard MMO crop today. If you're looking for a breezy PvE experience, you might not even want to consider running one. However, Carbine hopes that you'll look past the increased difficulty and run-time to be intrigued by some of the most unique encounters and locales in the game. This was the word from WildStar Design Producer Stephan Frost at PAX Prime. Frost ran us quickly through a pair of dungeons -- The Ruins of Kel Voreth and Stormtalon's Lair -- to give us the lay of the land and an idea of what we'll be in for when we timidly step over these thresholds. These dungeons might not be everyone's cup of tea, but those who appreciate a challenge will find it and the rewards to match.
What would be enough?
I play Alliance now. I've played Alliance primarily throughout my WoW career, although admittedly I played Horde over on Malfurion with some awesome folks local to Edmonton (Hi Vees) and again on Sisters of Elune with another group of people I really liked. (Hey Taken.) When I played Horde, I almost always played tauren because, well, I have significant problems with Horde storylines. My then-fellow Horde would always tell me about how they liked the Horde's underdog status, but I never saw that - I saw forsaken plague bombing people, orcs attacking their enemies when they were occupied fighting the Scourge, etc etc. The Horde was always the aggressors, I noticed - how were they the underdogs? Still, I liked the people I was playing with (still do, in fact) and so I kept going. Just because I didn't see the underdog thing didn't mean it wasn't real, and there are plenty of other reasons for faction preference. Still I ended up back in the Alliance, as I always knew I would. I'm a draenei again, like I was in Wrath of the Lich King (and frankly, often in the same outfit) and I will admit here to favoring the Alliance in storylines. The Alliance is simply the group I sympathize with more, and Cataclysm definitely gave me plenty of fodder on that front. I know a lot of the changes were made to balance the Horde/Alliance leveling experiences, which were infamously disparate. It still ended up feeling like the Alliance was playing frozen side of beef in the Horde's upcoming "I did it, Adrian" montage. While I've since really enjoyed Mists of Pandaria, it hasn't entirely rinsed the bad taste I got leveling an alt through the Cata 1 to 60 game. So it is from that perspective that I have to say that I don't really understand what, exactly, some Alliance players want to be the outcome of Patch 5.4 - it seems like all that will satisfy some players is the complete and utter destruction of the Horde and the uprooting of half the player base.
TUAW test-drives the G-RAID mini portable RAID storage system
G-Technology makes some of the better pro storage products we've tested in the past, and the company provided us with a new 2 TB G-RAID mini (US$449.95) portable RAID system. This is quite the powerhouse for those who need fast, portable storage, including USB 3.0 and FireWire 800 interfaces as well as a pair of 7200-RPM hard drives. Design This is one drive that you won't worry about getting scratched up on the inside of your equipment bag while out on a video shoot. The diminutive drive, which measures just 5.88" x 3.25" x 1.5" (149 x 83 x 38 mm), is wrapped in a practically bulletproof aluminum casing. That aluminum adds a bit of heft to the 2.2 pound (1 kg) case, but helps in terms of dissipating heat through the integrated heat sink. There's also a cooling fan built into the bottom of the case. %Gallery-195941% On the back of the drive you'll find three ports -- two are FireWire 800 ports that can also be used with an included FW 800 to 400 cable with Macs that only support the slower standard, and one is a USB 3.0 SuperSpeed port. For our benchmarks, I used the USB 3.0 port and included cable as my MacBook Pro with Retina display does not include a FireWire port. When using FireWire, the drive is bus-powered; when connected via USB 3.0, it requires the included AC adapter for power. The company also provides a nice leatherette carrying case for the drive. If you don't need a full 2 TB of RAID storage, you might want to consider the 1 TB model that sells for $249.95. The drives can be used in either RAID 0 (striped set for performance) or RAID 1 (mirrored set for redundancy) mode, but realize that your usable storage in RAID 1 will be one-half of the installed storage amount -- in other words, the 2 TB array would be used as two 1 TB mirrored drives in RAID 1. Functionality and Benchmarks When I first took the drive out of its box and connected it to my test machine, it was obvious that another tech blogger had been testing the G-RAID mini. A proprietary bandwidth benchmark was on the drive, so I went into Disk Utility and reformatted the drive. I wanted to test the G-RAID mini in both RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations, but could not get G-Technology's RAID Configurator application to run without crashing repeatedly on my machine running OS X 10.8.4. The most recent version of this app is three years old; it's time for G-Technology to update it. I tried to set up RAID 0 using Disk Utility, but was unable to do so. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that one of the two drives in the casing had gone bad and I was just seeing one, as the only drive visible in all utilities was just one 1 TB unit. That being said, all results you see here for benchmarks are measuring essentially a single-drive unit. The results of 21 runs of the AJA System Test "Disk Whack" read/write test indicated an average write speed of 125.8 MB/s, with an average read speed of 122.7 MB/s. This benchmark indicates that the G-RAID mini is faster in both read and write operations than two other drives we've tested, a Western Digital WDC1001FALS-40U9B0 that measured in at 90.3 and 94.7 MB/s respectively on write and read speeds, and faster than G-Technology's own G-Drive Mobile at 86.0 and 103.6 MB/s. The G-RAID mini paled in comparison to the Seagate STBV30000100 drive we tested last November, which topped the charts with an average write speed of 171.5 MB/s and read speed of 170.7 MB/s. But for the most part, the G-RAID mini on USB 3.0 is faster than just about all FireWire 800 drives we've tested over the years. Conclusion The G-RAID mini is a sturdy, small and solid RAID array. Unfortunately, it appeared that the unit we tested had only one working drive, and the RAID Configurator app is not compatible with OS X 10.8.4. I would highly recommend that if you're interested in this array, you purchase one and do your own testing. G-Technology's warranty provides a 30-day return policy, provided that you return the device with all cables and in the original packaging in salable condition. Pros Very solid construction Dual interface design with USB 3.0 SuperSpeed and FireWire 800 Quite portable Cons RAID Configurator application is out of date Not bus-powered when connected via USB 3.0 Price is quite high; if you can put up with the extra weight, there are many larger RAID units that are available for much less Who is it for? The video or photography professional who needs a compact and light RAID array for work in the field.
Siege of Orgrimmar Preview: Malkorok
In Wrath of the Lich King, we rescued Valithria Dreamwalker. In Cataclysm, we had to contend with Chimaeron. Healers, if you were looking for a signature encounter for Mists of Pandaria, look no further than Malkorok. He's a former member of the Blackrock orcs who swore allegiance to Garrosh and now acts as bodyguard, chief advisor, and leader of the Kor'kron. In fact, Malkorok is so loyal that he volunteered to be infused with the power of Y'Shaarj. Read on to find out more about taking down this horde champion!
Vindictus' grim Pantheum the Executioner offers toughest challenge yet
With a name like "Pantheum the Executioner," you have to figure that this poor guy didn't have a lot of career prospects after graduating video game high school. Perhaps he did pest control a bit, but these days he's "a creature of unimaginable evil" tearing it up in Vindictus. Pantheum is the latest raid boss to come to Vindictus -- and he is no pushover. Nexon claims that Pantheum is one of the toughest bosses in the game and requires no fewer than eight players to take him down. Players can encounter him in the Shadow of Death raid, but they'll need to be on their toes to survive the boss' three phases. If players beat him three times, they'll earn enough currency to purchase a Grim Reaper box with super-rare contents. You can check out Pantheum in action after the jump!
Lord of the Rings Online answers 20 questions about Big Battles
As Lord of the Rings Online's storyline moves to Helm's Deep, the designers faced a problem. None of the game's existing models for content really fit the scale of the battle, and it just didn't feel right to have a large-scale war shoehorned in to skirmishes or raids. As a result, the team put together a new sort of content, tentatively named Big Battles, and has answered 20 questions about how this new format will play. Players will be able to participate in the content solo or in several group sizes, with each experience tailored for the specific group size rather than simply scaling health values for enemies. Rather than focusing on specific boss encounters, players are going to be part of a larger tactical environment, working toward a large objective instead of pursuing small ones independently. As this style will be replacing traditional instance progression, veteran Lord of the Rings Online players will want to take a close look at what the system entails and how they can work within it.
Siege of Orgrimmar Preview: Thok the Bloodthirsty
You can sort of guess what this boss will do if your raid group wipes. There won't really be any corpses of your group left when Thok is finished. Patch 5.4's Siege of Orgrimmar will feature a trend that started in patch 5.2: Fighting raid sized dinosaurs! Know what's more worse than fighting dinosaurs with laser beams? A hungry one. Read on to find out about other dietary alternatives for Thok the Bloodthirsty. Thok is a multi-phase boss that you'll get to later on in the Siege of Orgrimmar instance. Let's go over what he does and how my raid group dealt with him. Phase 1 For the tanks, I hope you're great at the lateral shuffle. Thok's Fearsome Roar will dish out around 200k damage in a frontal cone which applies a debuff. They'll be taking 50% more per debuff stack. Tag out and in as needed. Ensure that Thok is facing to the side while the rest of the raid is somewhere to the side of him. If the raid stands behind him, they'll be hit with a nasty Tail Lash. In other words, assume standard issue dragon slaying position with the raid on the side.
WoW looks to the future as Blizzard stocks surge
Blizzard might be weathering the sting of a 600,000 subscriber loss in World of Warcraft this quarter, but the studio's separation from Vivendi could be the salve to soothe the hurt. Following the news that Activision Blizzard is buying back shares to take away Vivendi's controlling stake, stocks have surged 18% in pre-market trading this morning. Baird Analyst Colin Sebastian says this is nothing but good news: "This looks like a win, win, win for Vivendi and Activision shareholders. It's a better outcome than a special dividend to Vivendi, and I expect Activision will function even better as an independent company without the overhang of a struggling parent." Blizzard is also taking steps to counter its subscriber drop. VentureBeat reports that the studio has increased its WoW development team, "lowered the barrier" for returning players to catch up to friends, and created an in-game proving ground so players can learn to heal or tank. We also have word that a new buff-centric class is being considered, although no specifics have been revealed.
Patch 5.4 PTR: New mounts from the Siege of Orgrimmar
PTR files are the gift that keeps on giving: today AdriaCraft posted videos of two mounts from the patch files, which we expect will be drops in the Siege of Ogrimmar raid. On show are the Kor'kron Proto-Drake and the Iron Juggernaut. The Juggernaut may actually be the Kor'kron Juggernaut Wowhead lists as dropping from Garrosh, but we can't yet say with certainty where either of these drop, so if you're desperate to nab one, stay tuned for more info. If you're in this post for the eye candy, check the videos embedded after the break for a close look at what could be your next mount!
EU raids Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom and Orange offices in data probe
Woop, woop, that's the sound of the... European Commission? EU officials (figuratively) kicked in the doors of Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom and Orange's European headquarters this week. The trio are being investigated after ISP Cogent Communications alleged that they are deliberately blocking data-hungry services -- much like Cogent's earlier complaint about Comcast. The trio are pleading their innocence while the case continues, and hoping that investigators don't mess with the office furniture too much.
